INFORMATION PROCESSING 1 Information Processing and Memory: Theory and Applications

This paper discusses theories associated with information processing and memory. It includes descriptions and definitions of important terms and models that have been used to depict memory types and processors. The frameworks associated with the stage theory model and schools of thought on pattern recognition and representation models are discussed as well as those on schema, parallel distributed processing, and connectionist models. The paper ends with discussion on the assessment of cognitive processing in education today and activities for developing instruction that is built on the theories discussed. Educators are very interested in the study of how humans learn. This is because how one learns, acquires new information, and retains previous information guides selection of long-term learning objectives and methods of effective instruction. To this end, cognition as a psychological area of study goes far beyond simply the taking in and retrieving information. It is a broad field dedicated to the study of the mind holistically. Neisser (1967), one of the most influential researchers in cognition, defined it as the study of how people encode, structure, store, retrieve, use or otherwise learn knowledge. Cognitive psychologists hypothesize an intervening variable or set of variables between environment and behavior—which contrasts it wit